OASIS Alert

Look for the top submission error to change.

Don't jump the gun on the final OASIS regulation.

Agencies must wait until June 21 to implement the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' new OASIS reporting regulation, Pat Sevast, former consultant and current CMS Survey and Certification Group staffer, told participants at the March National Association for Home Care & Hospice's annual policy conference in Washington, DC.

Benefit: The final reg does away with the troublesome rule requiring agencies to lock OASIS data within seven days of completing the OASIS assessment. Instead, agencies must en-code and electronically transmit the OASIS data to the state agency or contractor within 30 calendar days of the date the OASIS assessment is completed--that is, the date in M0090, Sevast clarified (see OASIS Alert, Vol. 7, No. 2).

More good news: Eliminating the locking requirement also will eliminate two of the top three OASIS submission errors for claims with a M0090 date of June 21 or later, Sevast noted. The most common submission error is the record not being locked within the required period and the third most common error is the record not being locked and submitted within the required time frame.

Note: The final regulation is at www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a051223c.html --scroll down to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services entries.

• A new version of CMS' OASIS training program is available at www.oasistrainingorg/oasis11/upfront/u1.asp. CMS is working on getting CDs of the new version available to providers in the next few weeks, a spokesperson says.
 
• Requests for anticipated payment (RAPs) won't be caught up in the fiscal year-end payment hold mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act.

The Homecare and Hospice Financial Management Association, an affiliate of NAHC, successfully challenged the inclusion of RAPs in the payment hold that will take place Sept. 22 to 30, NAHC reports. CMS will issue a revised transmittal to clarify this, the trade group adds.

• Just when you could find CMS' Medlearn Matters provider education articles on the new Web site, it's time to learn a new name. CMS will now call its education articles "MLN Matters" articles, which stands for Medicare Learning Network, CMS says in a new MLN Matters article at www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0620.pdf.